Fortune brings us the not unexpected news that Microsoft has a copy of the iPhone SDK and is looking into opportunities thereupon, though the company's being cagey what if anything that will mean.

“It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone,” said Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president, specialized devices and applications group. “To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now."

“We do have experience with that environment, and that gives us confidence to be able to do something,” Gibbons said. “The key question is, what is the value that we need to bring? We’re still getting comfortable with the SDK, right? It’s just come out. So we had a guess as to what feasibility would be like, now we’ll really get our head wrapped around that.”

Editor's note: And, if Microsoft does find an opportunity and then releases software that fills that need on the iPhone? Well, that would be a good thing™... right?

Well, maybe. Honestly, I smell the slight spin-enhanced perfume of pre-empting (ie back off Office on the iPhone, guys, 'cause Redmond's on the case)...